Kleeman said in a statement: "Sales for the first four months of 2006 are close to management's expectations and more than 10 per cent ahead of the same period last year. With margins under the same pressure as we experienced in the second half of last year, and with the constant pressure to improve working capital, niche divisional profits are unlikely to match last year at the half way stage."

Trading at ComputerLinks has been better and it will announce first quarter results on Thursday 18 May. The firm expects to pay an interim dividend in October of "not less than one pence per share, compared to 0.4 pence per share last year". ®